So here's the deal. I have 2 ways to archive my cassettes to CD. Both have pros and cons. I want best quality, ease of doing and least cost. Option 1. Record from the deck to my HHB stand alone recorder. Pros; best quality, one time and done. Cons; scrounging everywhere to find expensive Max 16X burn CDs which are mostly only 60 min. (HHB recorders do not like high speed CDs),no way to tell how much time you used until done recording. Wherever possible I would like to get 2 cassettes on 1 CD. Option 2. Record from the deck through an A-D convertor on to a HDD using Audacity. Pros; variable sampling rates for recording, use of cheap data CDs with 80 min capacity, ability to find time and file size to put 2 cassettes on 1 CD, burn at high speed. Cons; cheezy A-D convertor, less than amazing recording software, 2 or 3 step process, HDD failure is always possible. I hope I explained all this OK. Any and all comments are appreciated. Thanks.

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I own an HBB, which I think is a great recorder, but I do most of my archiving on a Yamaha CDR-HD1300, which allows me to create custom groupings, etc., much like a pc would. I also trust the high quality recording of the Yamaha a bit more than a pc, regardless of the soundcard, etc. That's just me though. Plus the Yamaha has a special recording mode (used when transferring the previously recorded data from the hard drive to a cd-r/cd-rw), called Audio Master Quality Recording (AMQR), that actually creates larger bit lengths by speeding the cd-r to the highest allowed Red Book speed of 1.4m p/sec. That can occasionally make an audible difference even when playing them back on relatively high end equipment, and definitely improves playback/tracking on cheaper units. It's very handy for improved playback tracking in car cd units. The drawback is that it uses up a bit more space on the cd-r's. A 74-minute CD-R will hold only 63 minutes of music, and a 79-minute disc only 68 minutes.

I just archived all of my old cassettes onto my CDR-HD1300, from my Alpine AL-85, and couldn't be happier with how they turned out. I'll be transferring them onto Mama 74 min. real silver, inkjet printable 'music' cd's when I get the time. I bought a couple hundred of these directly from Mama some time back and got a fairly good deal on them for the quantity. I have recorded on them previously, and am very happy with their sound quality, and longevity. I have printed on them with an Epson ink jet and the print results come out looking very professional.

I also have some Mama gold, printable data cd's, but have to use the HHB to record onto them, as the Yamaha only accepts music cd's, and unfortunately Mama doesn't make gold music cd's.

I assume the HHB has S/PDIF out? So use it as the A/D converter, and feed the S/PDIF to a card or USB dongle on the computer. The somewhat antique Audigy 2 ZS can do bit-accurate recording (using the stock Creative drivers), though unless you want to DIY an input bracket you'll have to pay a premium for the deluxe version. I belive various M-Audio cards can capture accurately from S/PDIF.

One problem, though: the HHB most likely just does 16/44.1, since that's what traditional audio CDs are. 48k is preferable, especially if you're going to author DVD-player compatible discs. Do you have a DAT or Mindisc recorder? Those should be able to capture and pass through S/PDIF at 48k.

I've archived various cassettes (and VHS HiFi) recordings using a Behringer SRC-2496 as the A/D converter, Audigy 2 ZS with DIY Toslink input bracket, and Audacity. A couple I've authored to "audio DVD", but mostly I just burn data DVDs with FLAC versions, two copies on different brands of media, including high-res scans of any tape artwork.

I own and use HHB recorders. Yes, the word is you are supposed to use 1X to ? CD-Rís. You can buy HHB 80 minute CDR's in a hundred pack for I think about $60.00 -$70.00 at Tape Warehouse in Atlanta. I'll be honest, I use the JCV (formerly Taiyo Yuden, inventor of the CD-R) printable Silver ink jet CD-R's. They are really for high speed, but I have NEVER had an issue with them. Maybe I am lucky, but in the 10+ years of using them, I have NEVER had any drop out issues. These can also be purchased from Tape Warehouse in Atlanta for about $35.00 for a spindle of 100. I would call them instead of ordering online. Their phone number is 1-800-659-8273. E-mail me if you have any questions through my profile. I posted their website below. Let us know what you decide.

I use Audacity to rip vinyl & cassettes to digital & it works great. Versatile enough to do about anything you'd need to do to a signal.

I just use an inexpensive Edirol (Roland) USB interface & it's worked very well. I'm quite happy with it.

Personally, I find 320kbps MP3 sufficient to ripping a cassette with no audible loss in quality, using a Nakamichi 3 head deck. If you did go with 320kbps LAME MP3, you'd be able to fit many cassettes onto one CD. Some will disagree, but in my experience 320kbps MP3 is as high fidelity (if not moreso) than any cassette, (even metal ones recorded from a high quality source) even on a high end deck.

The best way to find out if this would work for you is to try it & compare the original to the file.

To insure against losing my music files, I back up to external USB drives. They're pretty cheap nowadays.

It's a dirt cheap Roland/Edirol UA-1A. It's not "audiophile approved", but it does a surprisingly good job. Link's below. It's dead quiet and whatever you put into it is what you get back out of it.

Just plug your Nak directly into the interface via regular RCA cables Q& you're good to go. Or, you can hook it up to the tape loop on your preamp, just like a tape deck. That latter method is how I did it.

The UA-1X is basically the same unit, by the way. Just cosmetically different. There's one on eBay for $40.